The latest mandates, ferry delays, and soda taxes, this week

Bill Radke discusses this week's news with SCCInsight.com's Kevin Schofield, Publicola criminal justice reporter Paul Kiefer, and Crosscut reporter David Kroman.

On Thursday President Joe Biden announced a new vaccine and testing mandate for millions of workers in the US. The latest mandate requires that all employers with more than 100 employees must have their workers be vaccinated against COVID-19 or take weekly virus tests, a move that expands past earlier mandates for federal workers and into the private sector. The move has drawn criticism from those who believe businesses should decide their own vaccine policies, as well as from workers' unions, who are already negotiating with federal and state agencies over vaccine requirements. Here in Washington, the largest state employee union just reached a tentative agreement with Governor Inslee’s vaccine mandate. The agreement, not yet ratified, requires members to be vaccinated and will not offer a testing alternative. Other wins for union workers include the use of work time to get vaccinated, including an extra day of personal leave to be used as a “vaccine incentive.” Of more concern in the agreement is the state’s attitude toward exemptions, which the state has been shown to be particularly critical of (and which we've discussed on this program). Those who refuse the vaccine and don’t qualify for exemption are at risk of termination from their job. What does this deal accomplish for the state and union workers? Is testing a viable workaround in place of vaccination?

On the city level, an agreement between unions and the city has yet to be reached, and workers have threatened sickouts in protest. Portland exempted its police department from their mandate, though Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is dismissing that as a possibility here, even as projections show the city could lose scores of officers over the mandate. What deal is likely to be made at the city level?

And in another bit of COVID news, the mu variant is beginning to slowly spread throughout the country. King County has so far counted 39 total cases, and county public health official Dr. Jeff Duchin said this latest variant has the potential to circumvent current vaccine protection -- though the exact potency of this variant is yet unknown. How worried should we be about this latest variant? Is there potential for it to balloon, like Delta did?

Speaking of sickouts, rumors circulated this week that employees working in the state ferry system might have been planning a sickout of their own in protest of state vaccine mandates. This is especially concerning as Washington State ferries are facing a staffing crisis at the moment, which has led to delays and canceled sailings. At least 130 sailings have been missed since February, which Ian Sterling told the Seattle Times is the worst number in recent memory. Worse too is how up to the moment these cancellations can be, constantly leaving the ferry system in the air. Ferry workers unions are acknowledging the legality of recent mandates, and are currently bargaining over the effects of the shortage on overstretched workers. With many ferry workers worried about losing their job beneath the mandate, workers who depend on the largest ferry system in the US are also concerned with current unreliability. What are the impacts of these cancellations on island communities and those who use them for transit? Are delays and cancellations a problem resulting from the pandemic, or do there need to be more failsafes within the system post-pandemic? What needs to change for our ferry system to be more resilient?

In other news this week, in mid-August the Seattle City Council voted 7-0 to approve a less-lethal weapons ban. The ban would restrict the use of weapons such as tear gas, pepper spray, and flash-bang devices — particularly during protests and demonstrations — while totally banning the use of blast balls and a handful of other crowd control weapons. This wasn’t the first time the council’s tried to limit or ban less-lethal weapons - in June of last year the council passed a sweeping ban on the purchase and use of nearly all less-lethal weapons. But it was blocked by the federal judge in charge of the city’s consent decree. This time it’s facing difficulty before it even reaches the judge. This week Mayor Durkan returned the bill unsigned to the council, attaching a lengthy letter detailing her complaints about the legislation. In it she said the ban was “of doubtful legality”, calling it a “knee jerk” reaction to last summer’s protests. What exactly does Mayor Durkan highlight as being wrong with the ban? Is she correct in saying it’s of doubtful legality? Did Mayor Durkan sign the previous weapons ban, or also question its legality? Even if Durkan had signed it into law, would this ban just be struck down by the consent decree’s judge again?

In January of 2018, a $1.75-per ounce tax on sweetened beverages took effect in Seattle. Taxed beverages include soda, sports and energy drinks, teas and coffee, and juices. The tax was meant to reduce consumption of sugary beverages, which is associated with a number of negative health impacts, including heart disease and high blood pressure. Seattle has been using the soda tax revenue to fund healthful eating and education initiatives, and the Mayor's Office announced a plan during the pandemic to use the revenue to provide emergency supermarket vouchers to thousands of families. But a new report by a University of Washington research group shows that the tax may not actually be decreasing consumption of sugary beverages. In fact, the report states that among higher-income residents sugary beverage consumption has actually increased since it went into effect. This is a very different report from what we’ve heard previously about the beverage tax. As recently as last year, a UW report stated that the tax had decreased consumption by 33% for adults. So what’s going on here? Is this tax getting people to drink less soda? Is there any way to know for sure? Would Seattle consider canceling the beverage tax if that was proved to be the case? If they did, what would provide funding for the education initiatives and emergency vouchers that the tax currently supports?

And lastly, this Saturday will mark the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The city of Seattle is planning a small ceremony to honor the victims of the attack, and Port of Seattle firefighters have created a memorial in SeaTac airport as a commemoration. 20 years is a long time, and America has changed drastically since that day. In the past few years alone we’ve faced a global pandemic, the end of a 20-year war in Afghanistan, and the institution and subsequent removal of what’s colloquially been called the Muslim travel ban. And that’s just to name a few recent events. So how are you thinking about this 20 year anniversary? How has 9/11, and the way it’s shaped America, changed your life, or the lives of people around you? As we look back on this day 20 years ago, what was its lasting impact on America?